“Sunday Night Live” From Downtown Pasadena

Life begins at 40.

“This is the hippest Emmys I’ve ever seen,” said Tracey Ullman during Sunday night’s 40th annual Emmys on Fox Broadcasting (KTTV Channel 11).

The hippest, headiest and happiest.

From the opening campy “Sweeney Sisters” (actually Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks of “Saturday Night Live”) to Robin Williams’ injection of inspired lunacy and a nine-letter dirty word to the wonderful weirdness of Penn and Teller, this was the Emmyiest of Emmycasts.

Tradition has it that Emmy telecasts are synonymous with heaviness. It’s that annual event when your eyelids feel like 100-pound weights. But no more.

The pacing, the writing, the sound bites and sight bites and just about everything else that executive producer Lorne Michaels--the co-creator and executive producer of “Saturday Night Live”--brought to this usually thudding evening seemed to work.

In a sense, then, it was “Saturday Night Live” replacing Emmy’s traditional Sunday Night Dead.

Among the many clips of old series shown viewers was one from “Batman,” with Batman and Robin walking up the side of a building. Batman: “Let’s go, chum.”

In a creative sense, Michaels and his production team were walking up a wall too.

One of the evening’s most inventive ideas was casting Tony Danza of ABC’s “Who’s the Boss?” as “designated acceptor” for winners who weren’t present. Danza would end up making seven acceptance speeches, finally running out of things to say. Sort of.

“Boy, is my agent in trouble for getting me this gig,” he joked at one point. “I’m out of material. If anybody has any ideas, I’m in the front row.”

It was also a night when worthy underdogs came out winners, from ABC’s “The Wonder Years” as the best comedy series to ABC’s “thirtysomething” as the best dramatic series.

And it was a night for such repeat winners as John Larroquette of “Night Court,” getting his fourth Emmy for best actor in a comedy series.

Watching him make his acceptance speech, it occurred to you that when it comes to repeat winners, the Emmy is more impressive than the Oscar or Tony because it celebrates sustained performance over a long period.

It was a night of many things.

--Of hurt and candor mixed with joy, reflected in Richard Kiley’s acceptance of his deserved Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series, “A Year in the Life,” which NBC has canceled. After expressing good feelings about winning, he added, “I have nothing but sadness for the corporate myopia that killed a fine show.” Amen!

--Of irony, reflected in the 1988 Governors Award given William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, TV’s top supplier of Saturday cartoons. Viewers were given a sample of their work via a string of clips--almost all of them violent.

--Of slights. Some of the most significant awards were handed out Saturday. One went to Shirley Knight for best guest performer in a drama series (“thirtysomething”). Another went to Beah Richards for best guest performer in a comedy (CBS “Frank’s Place”). And HBO’s brilliant “Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam” was named the outstanding informational special. To deny them a full prime-time shot in the Emmy class (they were briefly mentioned as part of a six-minute package Sunday night) was unconscionable, for whatever reason.

--Of omissions. The biggest was Sam Waterston, whose soaring performance as Abraham Lincoln in “Gore Vidal’s Lincoln” on NBC did not even earn him a nomination.

Even with the telecast’s celebration of the best of TV, there were some reminders of some of the worst. One came in Fox promos for its sleazy new series “The Reporters”:

“They’re emotional. They’re involved. They’re direct. They’re dedicated to breaking the stories no one else dares to cover.”

Or wants to.

Otherwise, Sunday was an evening of high roads. As repeat Emmy winner Michael J. Fox of NBC’s “Family Ties” said in response to having his statuette presented by Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke: “Wow, far out.”

Very far.